


A Friend Indeed

by Nelja-in-English (Nelja)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Body Horror, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Mentions of Tim/Melanie, Self-Destructive Behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 18:19:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15125207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nelja/pseuds/Nelja-in-English
Summary: Post episode 106, Melanie wants to scream at the world, and Georgie is here.





	A Friend Indeed

"Hello. How are you?" Melanie asks as she sits at the restaurant table. Georgie was early. Melanie used to be the punctual type too, before her job ate her soul.

"Oh, good. You know, same as always. And you?"

"Fine." Melanie smiles very convincingly. She's not only a supernatural investigator, she's an entertainer. She knows all about getting the voice, the smile, and the make-up right. And for a few seconds, she thinks she’s succeeded.

"You look like hell, though."

Georgie is still as direct as ever. She won't pretend Melanie looks great, even though it’s a nice thing to say. But she doesn't ask questions. Melanie is sure they could keep chatting about ghost podcasts, and just order and eat their food. Georgie is just telegraphing that the option to talk exists.

What could Melanie say, though? _I've been thinking about the horrible way my father died?_ Rotting for weeks, worse than rotting, actually, with flies living in his body, and then the fire... For one moment, she just wants to scream it all out at the top of her lungs and see Georgie’s face fall.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just work. Would you believe me if I said my boss is an evil psychopath?"

"Yeah, I’ve heard about him. Jon didn't use those words exactly, but the idea was the same."

Oh. Good to know that Jon is really on their side. Sometimes Melanie is not so sure. 

"You think it's a job, and turns out it's a cult," Melanie continues. Georgie nods again. It almost annoys Melanie, how easily her words are believed. "Has Jon told you about that too?"

"I guessed that part by myself. Jon believed they fired him and sent the Police after him, but he wouldn't stop doing their dirty work anyway."

Melanie laughs and pretends it's not bitter. "Yeah, I remember. He took it far better than me."

"Jon is not always reasonable," Georgie answers calmly. Melanie snorts, because it's true, then her lips twitch.

"Me, I'm taking a proper break," she explains, almost joyful. "Calling in sick for a while. No Archive work for me! Don't accept a job there, ever! The pay is shit anyway." Maybe they are actually helping Jon saving the world, but even so, it doesn’t feel worthwhile. It’s not like Melanie isn’t easily replaceable.

"Never been my intention."

Once again, Melanie feels like she could stop here. But she has the perverse desire to keep talking, until Georgie stops believing her.

"Tim says it will probably kill me, though."

"Would your evil boss come after you with magic?"

"No, his God, actually." 

Georgie’s expression turns grave. "Hey." She pats her arm. "Don't let work kill you, don't let not-work kill you. Balance." She pauses a bit, but Melanie has nothing else to say right now. "By the way, tell me about you and Tim."

This is more comfortable territory, and it says a lot about what Melanie's life has become. "Oh, a co-worker. We're... sort of sleeping together between work hours." That, or misfiling things out of resentment. "Sometimes. He's not there often. I don't even know if I like him, but he's super hot if you're into broody types, and he hates Elias as much as I do. When I first got the job, he got angry at me, but now that I understand why, we're getting along better."

"Should I congratulate you for this?"

"I could have done worse, I think."

"Also, I can't believe you call your evil boss by his first name."

Melanie could laugh again. This is actually weird. "Can you believe I tried to kill him? He didn't take it well, especially the second time."

Georgie does look shocked this time, and Melanie feels sort of good about it. So some things can faze her.

"Why?"

"Because he's evil, that's why! I will kill him, even if it will kill me too. Probably. You didn't think I was the type, did you? Well, most of the assholes I dealt with before were of the already dead kind."

"Hey, come here," says Georgie, and she opens her arms.

Melanie is already crying as Georgie awkwardly hugs her. It's exactly what she didn't want, yet it feels good. She doesn't care that people are watching. She doesn't care that she's crying in public. There has already been worse on the Internet anyway.

"He put it in my head..." she whispers. "The way my father really died. I didn't want to know, and he forced me to know, and he said that if I acted against him again, he'd force me to see."

Her father lost most of his memory during the ordeal, didn't even realise it wasn't meant to be normal. But he remembered a bit, when he started to burn. The sickly yellow rash on his body burned like straw, but the part underneath, the one that was still human, it burnt for long and it hurt so much.

And Elias could make her feel all this. 

For a long time, they don't talk. It's better this way. Melanie has already said too much. Or maybe exactly the right amount. 

And then the silence becomes too much, and the comforting arms around her not enough, and she steps back. She's angry again, at Georgie, at the world. The anger won't pass. It will never pass. Maybe if she killed Elias. If she managed it, his threat would be in vain, since she'd be dead too. Maybe one day her personal research will teach her how to become a very angry, violent ghost. With the life she has now, she would welcome it.

"Do you know who did it?" Georgie asks.

Does she know? She doesn’t want to know, she realizes. She doesn’t want to keep turning over the memories in her head (of course, she does it anyway). She wants to keep her anger focused at Elias only. But she can't do that, he's too well protected now and there's too much anger anyway.

"I have a vague idea," she says hesitantly. A figure. No name yet, but it could be there. Did Elias put it here on purpose? Or leave it out on purpose? "Some hints at least." She smiles. "They would burn well."

"If you want to get revenge, you could ask Jon for advice. You're a great paranormal investigator, but he's been reading about those things for years, and he has a good memory. And he has these... you know, weird superpowers."

It's a reasonable idea. Melanie can even imagine Jon being sympathetic. But it's maybe too reasonable for her right now.

"I don't need Jon," she says. She shows a badly forged smile. "I need food, right now.”

"Me too." 

What she needed more was more things to hate and destroy, and she has got at least one, so she's not at her worst right now.

"Hey, you're a good friend," she says. Melanie doesn't know if Georgie guesses how close Melanie was to burning all her bridges, even this one.


End file.
